In Memory of.......TREVEN

Click here to hear a special tune for Cassie, Treven's mom!
TREVEN JACOB CUNNINGHAM
GARLAND, Treven Jacob Cunningham, 1, received his wings Dec. 3, 1999.
He was born Feb. 16, 1998 in Dover-Foxcroft, son of Cassie Cunningham.
He is survived by his mother of Garland; maternal grandmother and step
father, Deborah Cunningham and Arthur Jette of Garland; paternal
grandfather Brent Cunningham Sr. and Jodie Roberts of Cambridge; great
maternal grandparents Dale and Lorraine Curtis of Dexter; many aunts,
uncles and cousins.
Private services will be in the care of the Crosby & Neal Funeral Home,
Dexter.
Public Memorial Services will be held at 2 PM Sunday Dec. 12 at the Dexter
Regional High School. In lieu of flowers donations may be sent to the
Treven and Mindy Angel Fund, c/o Dexter Regional Federal Credit Union, 73
Main St., Dexter, ME 04930.

Emotions fill Dexter memorial
By Mike Laberge, Of the NEWS Staff
DEXTER — The gym filled with mourners lay silent, save
for the sobs and the sniffles.
Melanie Bragg paused to compose herself at the lectern
adorned with greenery and yellow bows. Then she
tearfully recalled her younger sister, the ‘‘special little
boy’’ the young woman had loved like her own, and the
violence that had taken them away nine days earlier.
‘‘Since that day, there’s been a lot of would’ve, could’ve, should’ve,’’ she said.
‘‘A lot of us feel guilt and blame. But there is only one
person to blame, and that is the person who made the
decision to take our beautiful babies away from us,’’ she
said. ‘‘Hopefully, justice will be served soon.’’
The need for justice weighed heavily upon the 600 people
who packed the gym at Dexter Regional High School on
Sunday for a memorial service for Mindy Elizabeth Angel
Gould, 20, and Treven Jacob Cunningham, the
21-month-old son of Gould’s best friend.
Both were found shot to death Dec. 3, in the Center Street
home Gould and Bragg shared. Gould had been
baby-sitting the little boy.
Maine State Police investigators say they believe the killer
knew the home and the victims. Every day, they say, they
are making progress. They remain optimistic they will have
enough evidence to arrest someone soon.
In the meantime, many in the community have called for
people to pull together in healing.
‘‘This tragedy which has
happened here in our small community has angered us all.
Most of us were stunned,’’ the Rev. Maurice Neal of Dexter,
a retired Baptist minister, told the mourners to open Sunday’s service.
‘‘We are accustomed to letting our children play and romp
wherever they wish. Our houses go unlocked, keys left in
our cars,’’ he said. ‘‘Undoubtedly, some of these customs
will change.’’Neal led the mourners in reciting The Lord’s Prayer and
beseeched them to pray for strength. He then recalled the nonviolent protests of Martin Luther
King Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi, both of whom realized that
freedom lay in forgiveness.
‘‘Why am I telling you this? Because it is the only way to
get healing for your troubled soul,’’ Neal told the silent
audience.‘‘Hate, rage and acts of violence can tear the body and
soul apart,’’ he said. ‘‘You are the only one who suffers;
the one to whom the anger is directed cares less. Only
God can heal a broken and contrite heart. Let him help
you.’’
The service began a half-hour late to accommodate the
number of mourners attending. Fifteen minutes before the
scheduled 2 p.m. start, people wanting to sign the guest
book still formed a line that snaked around a corner and
into the nearby cafeteria.
On a table at the front of the lobby lay an arrangement of
greenery, with a single yellow candle in the center and a
tiny white, winged stuffed bear at the front. Gould loved
hunter green, and Treven always wore yellow.
Packets of tissues filled a basket beside the arrangement.
At the back of the gym, collages of more than 100
photographs of the victims adorned two tables and a pair
of easels. Up front, beneath more than 30 red and blue banners
proclaiming Dexter’s prowess in athletics, the families had
placed memorials. Bouquets of carnations and daisies
surrounded more pictures of Gould as a girl and a teen-ager.
Beside the collage rested a single portrait of Treven,
smiling in a yellow sweat shirt. A toy pickup truck with a
white football in the bed — the boy’s favorite toys — sat
in front of the picture.
Family members crowded the first three rows of chairs on
the gym floor. They included Treven’s mother, 19-year-old
Cassie Cunningham, and members of the extended families of both victims.
To the side, more than two dozen Dexter firefighters in
blue-and-white uniforms lined the front row of one set of
bleachers. Treven’s uncle, Brent ‘‘Gus’’ Cunningham, had
joined the Fire Department six months ago.
Throughout the hour-long service, friends and relatives of
the victims played special songs, read poems and gave
emotional tributes. ‘‘I once knew an angel who could not stay. I once knew
an angel who had to go away,’’ read one of the poems.
‘‘I once knew an angel who loved to smile. I once knew
an angel who stayed a short while,’’ it continued. ‘‘I once
knew an angel I will never forget.’’
During the tributes, men stared into their laps and pressed
tears from their eyes. Women wept and clutched tissues.
Children, some not much older than Treven, sat in their
parents’ laps and smiled, too young to understand the
violence that had brought them together.
At one point, one of Treven’s uncles, Brent Cunningham,
tearfully read a poem. Leaving the lectern, he looked to
the ceiling and said, ‘‘I love you, little man.’’
Arthur Jette, Treven’s stepgrandfather, later stood and told
the mourners what the community had lost.
First, he recalled Gould, a young woman who had just
begun to get her life on track.
‘She loved country music, her family, her best friend,
Cassie, and children,’’ Jette recalled, leaning on the
lectern. ‘‘She loved everything in life without reservation.’’
Then he remembered Treven, a ‘‘happy, healthy’’ little
boy just beginning to discover life.
‘‘He was easy to love,’’ Jette recalled, chuckling slightly.
‘‘No matter who he was with, he always had to be with
his Mama,’’ he said. ‘‘Now we must live ... to keep his
memory alive, and that of Mindy.’’
Just before the service ended, Bragg, Gould’s sister,
offered sobering advice. Gould recently had returned to
Dexter from southern Maine after ending a troubled relationship.
Three days before she died, she had obtained a yearlong
restraining order against her ex-boyfriend, Jeff Cookson,
36, of New Gloucester. State police briefly detained him
the day of the slayings, but let him go on the advice of the
Attorney General’s Office.
His attorney, Dale Thistle, has said his client has denied
involvement in the slayings. State police have declined to
say if they consider Cookson a suspect.

‘‘The one thing I would like to get across — if only to one
person — is don’t ever take any form of abuse,’’ Bragg
said.‘‘Get out, get away, go with your family, friends or to a
domestic violence project,’’ she said. ‘‘Love does not hurt,
and if you’re in a relationship that does hurt, end it.’’

AN ANGLE
I KNOW AN ANGLE THAT CAME FROM HEAVEN ,
TO PROTECT A LITTLE BOY NAME TREVEN .
ME AND HIM WOULD PLAY ALL DAY .
BUT THEN HE HAD TO GO AWAY.
HE WAS ONLY 2 YEARS OLD
THEN DOMESTIC VIOLENCE TOOK HIS SOUL.
HE HAD A SMILE THAT WOULD MELT STEEL,
SADNESSIS THE ONLY EMOTOINTHAT I WILL FEEL,
BUT THE MEMORIES I HAVE FOR HIM ARE GRAND,
BECAUSE TO ME HE WILL ALWAYS BE MY LITTLE MAN.
ON A SUNNY DAY WHEN IT IS BRIGHT AND WINDY'
I THINK OF HIM AND HIS ANGLE MINDY,
SO IF THERE IS VIOLENCE WITH IN YOUR HOME,
YOU SHOULD STOP IT NOW OR YOU MIGHT BE ALONE.

WRITTEN BY ; BRITTANEY- JO LINDSAY
MARCH 15, 20000

This a picture of the author of the poem above. I have not edited the poem in any way from the way she gave it to me, therefore I am aware of the spelling errors but do not wish to alter her work of art.